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Okay, so how do you wear your hair? I have been training for a year and have yet to find an ideal way. If I put it in a ponytail (high or low) it gets stepped on when I'm on the mat or gets yanked on during techniques like iriminage. If I put it in a bun or a high pony tail then it tends to get stuck in ukes folded arms during techniques such as shihonage and I am forced to go to the mat with them unless I want to be bald! I am planning on getting my hair cut shorter (still able to be pulled back in a pony, but will be a small pony) when I have the time and money.

Until then, I thought I would ask the ladies on here what works for you or do you just deal with one of the negatives and life continues on?

~Look into the eyes of your opponent & steal his spirit.
~To be a good martial artist is to be good thief; if you want my knowledge, you must take it from me.

I've been tempted (and in the past did try) to get it cut short, but it just doesn't suit me. I've also tried braiding it while wet (such as for seminars) but it's thick enough that everything just ends up loosening up on me as practice progresses.

So what usually works in my case is:

1) to start by pulling the top half back and securing it with one of those "ouchless" ponytail elastics you get at the drugstore (also called a half-updo)

2) I gather the remainder up and using a second "ouchless" elastic, loop the elastic with one twist around everything into a ponytail, making sure that the second elastic grabs onto the first (which acts as a kind of anchor)

3) while holding the elastic open with one hand, I use my other hand to loop the ponytail in half (almost like I'm folding it downwards once) and secure that with a couple more twists of the same (second) elastic.

4) with a third elastic, I loop over everything a few more times for extra security.

Hope that made sense - the result is a kind of half-bun/looped ponytail. I know it sounds elaborate but once you try it, you find it's actually pretty simple and (at least for me, even with my thick hair) it's been the best method I've found to keep everything together through all the breakfalling we do at my dojo.

I still get the few odd hairs torn out once in a blue moon (usually as part of the ponytail gets stepped on by some over-zealous nage just as I'm trying to get up from a fall), but I've given up on trying to make things foolproof.

The other advantage to this method is that if things do end up getting out of sorts while you're on the mats, fixing it/tightening things up again is really quick to do. And the less time taken out of practice, the better!

My hair is super fine, so it will mostly stay in any style I set it in with minimal amounts of elastics.

I started keeping my hair short when I started Aikido for the exact reasons you just pointed out. People always would kneel on it, or pull it during techniques. (I have a teacher who uses the long hanging hair as part of the technique at times...ouch.) It got annoying, so cut it to about 3 inches long... sort of a pixie cut.

I'm growing my hair out however for my wedding. ( I want my long barrel curls on my wedding day damn it!)
So I'm running into some familiar issues with my hair. However, I've found a solution. I'm keeping my hair in tight, mid-high to high pig tails.

I look childish as hell.(especially being as small as I am.) And I'm sure visiting Aikidoka might not take a pig-tailed girl as serious... but whatever, it is practical. You can roll and have your entire neck area clear of barrettes, hair bands and buns. There's nothing to grab near the neck, mostly nothing to kneel on because the hair is strung up high, and nothing to roll on and get dug into your neck, or get ribbed out by the mat. Unlike the pony tail, the hair is pulled away from the center of your skull, allowing you to roll back without messing up the pony tails.

I look about 3 years old... but there's a reason that hair style works for little girls... it prevents them from mucking their hair up.

Oh I could hear the giggles and teasing now if I did pig tails! My hair is so long though that I don't think those would help unless I looped them. Then that would be two things to take care of. Short hair seems to be the best option for me. When is your wedding!?!

~Look into the eyes of your opponent & steal his spirit.
~To be a good martial artist is to be good thief; if you want my knowledge, you must take it from me.

Oh I could hear the giggles and teasing now if I did pig tails! My hair is so long though that I don't think those would help unless I looped them. Then that would be two things to take care of. Short hair seems to be the best option for me. When is your wedding!?!

If you loop it you can rock a post-victorian look.

We are getting married November 13th.

My hair is still shoulder length, so the pig tails are still working. I'm not sure how it will evolve as it grows. I still wish I knew how to tie corn rows.

I'm not a lady (the beard gives it away), but as I have some of the longest hair in my dojo I'll answer anyway.

At first I tied my hair in a ponytail (my usual hair style), but my hair was still getting too tangled and in the way. So I started putting it into one. It took a while for my wife to teach me, but I can now tie it up all on my own. I find it stays out of the way wuite well, though it does get pretty fuzzy by the end of a class (I have fairly thick wavy hair).

I've had people grab my hair in techniques. Truth is having a thick braid pulled doesn't really hurt so I don't really care.

My hair hangs at about my waist when its loose. I just put it up in a braid for classes or work. Braid maybe goes to just past the middle of my back. So far I've never really had any problems with it getting stepped on or pulled. It has occasionally gotten kneeled on during pins but never really enough to be a bother and I have told my partners not to worry about grabbing it if they happen to. I mean honestly in real life if someone grabbed me they would not be careful of my hair, they would use it so I may as well learn to deal with it in the dojo right?

I have worn it in just a low pony tail a few times. High pony tails are no fun to roll over. Personally I prefer not to train that way just because when I sweat my hair winds up stuck to my face or wrapped around my neck...

I'm growing my hair out too for my wedding (April 10, so not long now!) and there has been lots of variations on pony tails in the process. I find a high pony works for me, while one of our shodan girls wears hers in a loose low pony tail which would drive me nuts as it flies about and sticks to her face. So it looks like it's up to what you can deal with during training. I got a fringe (bangs I think you guys call it!) cut in and it got really annoying at one point. Those metal 'one touch' or snap clips that little girls wear are good to deal with shorter bits though!

I've also done the half pony high up caught into a full pony at the nape. This was pretty secure, but then my hair is only just past my shoulders *pout*

Just long enough to put into a low ponytail. No bangs - I hate it when my hair gets into my eyes.

Nobody has tried to pull my hair (except jokingly, or demonstrating "what could happen") at the dojo. It's been knelt on, but that doesn't happen often.

By the "keep it short so people can't grab it in techniques" theory, we should probably all have our ears lopped off, too. If you like wearing your hair long, learning to deal with that possiblity that it could be grabbed by an attacker would make more sense that cutting it.

Of course, wearing it really short has some practical advanges: easier to wash/dry, doesn't get knelt on, etc. If you want to wear it short, go for it.

My mid-neck-length has some non-Aikido practical advantages: still too short to tangle, long enough to keep sun off my neck, and covers my ears, which is great for working around bugs (mosquitos!) in the barn/yard.

I tried everything except cutting short, because that makes me looking like a boy in puberty but with wrinkles

But I suppose, nothing else works. I tried a bun, I tried a braid, I tried a band in the hair, I tried combinations like bun + band or braided ponytail (2 elastics, one for the ponytail, one for the braid), and none works. I think the problem is not if hair is thin or thick (mine also is rather thick), but if it's straight or curly. When it's straight, like mine, everything slips out. So after 5 - 10 rolls or falls, I have to step out and put back the elastics in place.

For the moment, braided ponytail works best. But when summer comes I cut my hair chin-long, as it is too hot wearing it open, and the bun becomes too heavy if it is long enough to be worn as such...and then I'll have to revert to band around the head.

That is worst, and I remember that once a tori (also a woman - should know the victim's perspective!!!) stepped on my hair when throwing me in mae ukemi - she got a full strand of hair under her feet and I got a lesson to learn.

When it's at it's longest my hair is to my waist, I wear it in a braid. At the length it's now if I braid it just wrong it'll whip around and hit me in the face every time I'm uke for ikkyo... other than that, no problems. At least not what I consider problems. Like others said, I always walk around with long hair, might just as well get used to the possibility of it being grabbed.

Actually I get more annoyed by people who spend a long time trying to avoid grabbing my hair when they do iriminage or such. Just get on with it. :P

I look childish as hell.(especially being as small as I am.) And I'm sure visiting Aikidoka might not take a pig-tailed girl as serious... but whatever, it is practical.

I'm with you on the pig-tails - I will often do the same whenever the mood strikes me, for the very same reasons of practicality; plus it looks cute and I think I can still "get away with" the look. Though that will definitely change in the years to come...

But as for folks not taking us seriously (I'm 5' 1" and about 100lbs myself) while wearing pig-tails, I have fun giving them a reason to do so. Maybe I just find the ironic juxtaposition of it amusing - in demo videos it always looks like people are getting beat up by a little girl.

Open Sky Aikikai - http://www.winnipegaikido.com
"Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead." - Morihei Ueshiba

I'm with you on the pig-tails - I will often do the same whenever the mood strikes me, for the very same reasons of practicality; plus it looks cute and I think I can still "get away with" the look. Though that will definitely change in the years to come...

But as for folks not taking us seriously (I'm 5' 1" and about 100lbs myself) while wearing pig-tails, I have fun giving them a reason to do so. Maybe I just find the ironic juxtaposition of it amusing - in demo videos it always looks like people are getting beat up by a little girl.

LOL - I was totally going to suggest the Princess Leah do, but I see I was beaten to it.

My hair is long, thick, and extremely curly. I wear it in a low pony and no, it is not ideal at all. I was thinking of trying braids or a bun. The advantage of pigtails or the Leah-do would be getting it off of the nape of the neck. But at 43, I'm a bit reticent to go for pigtails. lol

Maybe you should ask those guys in the NFL with the super long hair hanging out of their helmets. I am amazed people like Troy Polamalu don't get their hair ripped out all the time.

Oh, no. I mean, I know that the NFL officially made hair part of the uniform and thus legal to grab, but I've never seen it happen, and I have to believe there's a reason for it...and, just a guess that it's the obvious reason: pull someone's hair and they're likely to lay you a lick. It's a bad idea unless you really want to start a fight.